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Selasa, 24 Januari 2012

90 Percent of Passports to be e-Passports by 2016

Within five years 90 percent of passport holders will be using e-passports that integrate a smart card IC chip. This is one of the conclusions drawn from IMS Research's recent report “Electronic Government and Health Care ID Cards – World – 2011.” A rapid migration from paper or machine readable passports to smart card-based passports (complying with the ICAO standard for ePassports) started in 2007. This has led to nearly half of all passports now in use being e-passports.

“This trend is set to continue” stated the report author Alex Green. “There are still a few countries around the world that are not yet issuing e-passports. However, most have started and with the typical five to ten year replacement rates for passports, it is only a matter of time before all passports in circulation are e-passports.”

The report goes on to explore to what extent biometrics are being recorded on these e-passports. Interestingly, even for passports issued in 2010, in the majority of cases no biometric data is held on these secure ICs except for a digital image of the holders face. IMS Research forecast that this will change. “

By 2014, the situation is forecast to have been reversed” states Green. “By this time the majority of passports being issued will also include additional biometric data such a one or more finger print, iris scans, etc.”

The e-passport market is examined for 40 countries in IMS Research’s report “Electronic Government and Healthcare ID Cards – World – 2011.” Similar analysis is also provided for the national ID cards, healthcare cards, electronic driver’s licenses and a number of other government related card types.